My Journey Thus Far

An Update – June, 2026

As many of you have walked along with my on my journey, and have contributed greatly to my understanding, it seems appropriate that I take a moment to review where I’ve been, where I am, and where, to the extent one can know this, I am headed. Please forgive the self-indulgence; it just seems to me that I am at some sort of inflection point, so I wish to capture this point – past, present, and near-term future.

I started writing at my other blog perhaps 15 years ago or more. The initial focus was primarily two-fold: first, an exploration of libertarian political philosophy – pushing myself through study and dialogue with others (albeit, I was not always charitable in this) just to see how far libertarianism could take me in a search for liberty.

Second, what I would describe as an examination of history – looking into what I believed about significant historical events and finding out that much of what I believed was a false picture painted for me. I came to understand that almost every meaningful event, not only in my life but throughout much of history, was either based on a lie or was explained through a lie.

I guess it was through the two of these combined that brought me to understand that a better political theory was not enough to bring society to a better place. Such an obvious sentence for me to write today. A thin libertarianism could do nothing to change men’s hearts, therefore, by itself it could do nothing to improve society.

A certain cultural norm was required, and I came to see this as something like a natural law ethic. To summarize: governmental laws should be based on natural rights (which is something akin to thin-libertarianism – don’t hit first, don’t take my stuff). But in order to sustain a society with only such minimal laws, it must be as a society whose people live in accord with a natural law ethic.

Looked at another way, natural rights = the silver rule: don’t do unto others as you would not want done to you; natural law = the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you; in other words, love – other-regarding action.

Which brought me to my current place as represented by my journey at this current blog. While being raised in a Christian home (albeit wandering greatly at one time in my life – a prodigal son), I never put together how dependent my liberty was on a Christian culture. This (along with events in my personal life in the real world) quickly led me to realize: the most important person to heal in society is me. I must change, to grow increasingly like Christ.

It is this that led me to the current blog – the one you are reading now. The transition occurred at the former blog, where I was already writing on many Christian and Christian-adjacent subjects. At one point, I intended to study the Sermon on the Mount, but wasn’t quite sure I should write publicly about it. So, I asked readers of that blog (many of whom are now here), what they thought about reading my thoughts on this Sermon. The response was overwhelmingly “yes.” That post received one of the highest comment counts of anything I had previously written.

I began this study at that blog, but soon enough started this one – to focus on this journey. Which points to…what of my Christian and church life? I will summarize the history: I was raised in a Protestant Christian home. I departed church for some time. When I found my way back, it was to an Oriental Orthodox Church, but I didn’t really understand much of what that meant.

Covid came, and all the institutional churches shut down. I found a good independent protestant church to attend, and I was very satisfied with it. While I remain grateful for the pastors and others I met there, I slowly found theological distinctions that were important to me – and you have read of these at this blog.

To summarize these distinctions:

The idea of good works was lacking in the Protestant churches I have attended. A loud shouting by the pastor: you can do nothing for your salvation! True enough, except there was so much in Scripture that said doing good works was necessary. Why was it necessary if I could do nothing?

I found that many early Reformers understood this reality – the necessity of good works. One example was Martin Luther, who wrote: works are not a cause of salvation, but are necessary to salvation. I found countless other such examples. But nothing like this was spoken of in any of the Protestant churches I attended in my life – only a curse on works.

This then came to what was meant by salvation. The sermons I heard: salvation is to escape eternal hell and enter eternal heaven. That’s it. No wonder the necessity of good works can be ignored. Am I not to grow like Christ – in this life? Which led to an understanding of what is meant by theosis. Which I also found was in the early Reformed tradition (see Jonathan Edwards) – but not once did I hear this preached in a Protestant setting.

Finally (at least thus far): what have I inherited from Adam? In the West, the inheritance is guilt; in the East, the inheritance is death. Not that either side holds to their view exclusively, but the emphasis in each is both clear and strong.

The creation story makes clear what I inherited from Adam:

Genesis 2: 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The West sees the Church as a courtroom – salvation is to be judged “not guilty”; the East sees the Church as a hospital – salvation will heal every part of me. Again, neither side exclusively, but the emphasis in the East turned out to be quite important to me.

I need healing. Physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. I need an entirely new nature, which is something much more than receiving a verdict of “not guilty.”

Which led to the inflection point: while I was splitting time between a Protestant church and an Oriental Orthodox church for several years, I am now exclusively attending an Oriental Orthodox church. Not because I think this is the only place to find Christ; only that it suits my understanding better (a very Protestant move, I know).

I remain steadfast in my belief that there are godly men and women in almost any denomination that can say the Nicene Creed without hesitation – even though they don’t all say it. I have seen too much good fruit from those who are Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox, to believe otherwise. I know them by their fruit.

And it also doesn’t mean that I will limit my writing to Eastern authors or traditions – although I have been focused on the early Church and early Church Fathers, overwhelmingly found in the East. These early Church Fathers belong to all of us, East and West, regardless of denomination or tradition.

Part of why I have focused on these is because I want to understand why I believe what I believe: my faith seeking their understanding, if you will. Every heresy has a proof-text; I read the earliest witnesses to my faith to be better grounded in the true faith and to better avoid heresy.

An example of my view of authors from different traditions: probably the single most impactful book I have studied is the one by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones (strongly Protestant) on the Sermon on the Mount. No other book has made such a difference on my “inside,” if you will – healing; a change of my nature.

Conclusion

So…what comes next? I can only describe this via the unread books on my shelf. Well, with a couple general comments: I have done pretty much all the work I intend to do on Christology. You will still see some posts on this, to finish some current work and because I am sure I will come back to it occasionally. I am also going to reduce my examination of Church history – not of early Church Fathers, but of the historical development of the Church. This will continue at once per week, I think, moving on to later centuries in this history.

Now, what’s on my shelf? Once I finish the study of the book of Hebrews, I will turn to Romans – again, using Fr. Malaty’s online commentary. And once I finish with the other books from which I am currently posting, I will review The Great Divorce, by CS Lewis, On the Holy Spirit, by St. Basil the Great, and Sermons from the Life of St. John Chrysostom. These four will all basically start around the first of August.

After these? Who knows. I have a few other books on the shelf, but my studies always lead me to where they will lead. So, even I will have to wait and see.

And, as always, I am grateful to each one of you who are contributing to this journey. I am blessed to have you along.

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